Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[ReformBlade]

Sucking the life of an enemy was a rather disturbing concept for Mushirah, but to drain the life out of an ally...? "I didn't..." She shook her head, unsure of what to make of this news. She wanted to assure him that it was ok, that while it wasn't a nice thing to do, that he'd be forgiven for his actions but she couldn't make that call in good conscience. "Look just... don't be that way, please. If I hadn't gotten so... hurt, you wouldn't have had to resort to that." She gave his hand another squeeze to get his attention so he'd listen. "So it's my fault, ok? Don't beat yourself up over this... Please. There's been enough pain and misery, just... don't do it." Just thinking of the pain made her feel a bit light headed, but she remained sitting up, if slumping a bit more. "I should've payed more attention to Dad when he was helping me practice. I never really considered fighting against demons like that... I wasn't ready, but now I at least know what's out there. Will you help me practice? Earth magic, Dark magic, anything, I just want to be more capable. I don't want to experience this again." She sort of switched topics in mid train of thought there but she was hoping to try and keep things on a more positive note rather than feeling depressed and sad at such an early point in the day.

Lumi had fortunately hit a good button on Aneda, wha was more than happy to take her up on that suggestion. "Oh! Right! Ugh I'm so bad at this care-taking thing... Maybe after I get something to eat though." She said, letting her head hit the table with an unfortunately loud thump. "Oooww, Son of a bitch..." It was her fault for landing right on her forehead, which probably had a nasty mark on it at this rate. "fucking table..." she mumbled.

Jericho nodded, ceding that point to Erion. "Fair enough." there wasn't much to say to that, and he was almost ready to go back inside when Eva shouted down to him if he wanted to catch her if she jumped off. Wide eyed for a split second he was about to call her crazy, but then, you know, he had an even sillier idea, he decided that suddenly he had the physical constitution to catch a full grown human being falling from what he would consider quite a height. "Um... Yeah! Totally!" He was so full of it but for some reason his mind wasn't letting him back down from this. Worst that happens is maybe a sprained rib cage... right? unless she knees me in the gut or lands right on a pressure point or joint or fuck me I should not be thinking like that.

[Snowy_One]

"I know a lot of things of course. Mostly about hunting. Knowing how the wind and weather are is useful for such a thing, as is some other things, like how to cook food on my own, make my own clothes, track animals. Things like that. It is not easy stuff to learn though, a lot of people do not realize just how hard it actually is to properly skin an animal or make an arrowhead. Took me most of my life to become a passable hunter. As for why I left, it is not a simple question for me to answer. Mostly I left because I was tired of wandering the backlands and, like a stupid, ignorant, girl I thought I could do something to change the balance between Skotia and Ursium by myself. That, somehow, one girl could grant Skotia victory just because no one else wanted it more. I am not a genius in case you did not figure it out. Another part of me wanted to meet my best friend again who left my hometown years before, and now he distances himself from me even though we are in the same group. I wish I could say my hopes and reasons for leaving were more noble, but they are not."

[Nanami Touko]

"Totally? Alright!" Eva was pretty psyched, looking at Erion with a lovely gaze. "<I guess I'll talk to you later, pretty boy. I'll have to talk to Weyland soon, too, so I can make sure I end up working with you.>" With a wink, she turned back to Jericho, and grabbed onto the nearest branch to get ready to jump off. "Geronimoooooo!" she shouted, making a quick leap out of the tree straight at Jericho.

[Phoenix]

Prince of Insomnia

Eugene was annoyed by Angelica's excuse for 'more clothing' but the expected name drop took precedence after he heard it. "Who is 'Valdimarr'?" he squinted at Angelica.

One of the other guards shook his head at Angelica when she asked Athrun to come sit beside her. They were familiar with her, certainly, but the prince's security was a little light as things were and they didn't want to take any chances. The guard also gave Athrun a look of sorts, causing him to lower his head and sigh.

Athrun did sit back down, but not as close to Angelica as he would have before getting that odd look. "My father's planning to address the people sometime today or so I've heard. That should be enough to keep their spirits up. I'm here to learn from this catastrophe and make sure it's really over. Speaking of which, it sounds like you know who's behind this attack." Sending her to investigate seems to have paid off. "Can you tell me what you know about it?" he asked weakly.

Prince of Guilt

While Shadrak understood what Mushirah was saying, he couldn't bring himself to just sit back and let her shoulder any of the blame for this. She was a mage, not a hardened warrior with years and years of battle experience, and he was the one that insisted on striking the first blow against the demons, a move that he felt shaped much of what followed. "No, it's my fault. I didn't know what the hell we were getting ourselves into or I wouldn't have insisted on attacking so soon. Still ... I'll try not to beat myself up over it like you said. That's the least I can do, right?"

With helping her train to become stronger being brought up next, Shadrak was reminded of just how determined she really was. Even before the injury, she'd decided to make maps, and some on the to-do list were colossal undertakings. That fire she for accomplishing things had been blown around in the wind last night, but it was still burning from the look of things, and that put a smile on Shadrak's face. "Sure thing," he nodded. "I'll help you get stronger. I'll get stronger too," he added, looking at his open palm. It was spotted with dried blood, and he couldn't remember if it was all his, or if some of it was from the demons. When I reach my potential, I'll be able to destroy demons like that just by looking at them, I swear ...

[Ether]

Well it seems the glares they were getting were stinting how close Prince Athrun was willing to get... what a shame. As for the other happening at the moment, the adept felt it somewhat strange that the name wasn't recognized, but she had already let it slip, so no point turning back now.

"Valdimarr is the leader of Corvus... the Fallen's sovereign... well, almost. There's still one guy left alive who can challenge his spot on the throne... I heard that he took quite a beating last night but it was all over by the time I got there, so I can't say for sure. As for the demons about the city, they were riled up by one of the fallen architects... I think someone said his name was Fury... anyway, that explosion was out where he was, I also managed to find that acquaintance I was worrying about over there... she was already fighting the bastard, but I knew that would end up happening." Angelica replied, as she lied back somewhat lazily, crossing her legs as she did so. Remembering half of the reason she even came out here, she dug a wind tome out of a bag she had on her person.

"Also, I should probably give this back, huh?" She added, holding the tome out to Athrun.

[Phoenix]

Information

"That information didn't come from Weyland did it?" Eugene asked, somewhat rhetorically. He knew the king was furious with the man for some reason but was unable to get anything more than hearsay due to guarding the prince all night.

"So that's our enemy ... Valdimarr. I won't forget that name," Athrun nodded. He smiled as he reached over to take the tome Angelica offered, but the same guard from before beat him to it. "Ahem, thank you," he thanked her anyway.

[Ether]

"You guys are really on edge, today." Angelica replied with a light sigh, as the guardsman took the tome.

"No, not from Weyland... well, not directly from him. Like I said, I don't know all the details, but the fallen were pretty well repelled on all fronts." Angelica added, before deciding that it might make things a bit interesting to stoke the flames, as it were.

"Have you heard of the Fire Emblem? Apparently, the only reason Valdimarr is still alive right now is because he has a piece of it... seems like cheating if you ask me..."

[Mercakete]

[spoiler=Sweat Dreams]The ground was cold and hard. It was the first thing he noticed as he began to come to. Urrghh... Where am I? Slowly, blinking, Norbert opened his eyes. Or at least he thought he did. Puzzled, he opened and closed them a couple times. The result was the same, however: there was nothing but a thick darkness around him. There were no stars and there was no moon. There certainly was no sun. He couldn't see a thing. As he sat up -- he could feel the ground below him, but he couldn't see it -- the rider began to think back to his most recent memories. It had been nighttime and foggy, but there was still light coming from the sky. He was cut up and bleeding...and he'd been riding Rizen, trying to get back to allied forces. Amon had gone back to check on Shadrak. Demons were attacking the estate and some of the group had gone off to get Blake, who was at the edge of Europa's city. The battle was still raging...

Now, though, there wasn't a sound to be heard other than the sounds coming directly from Norbert: his breathing and the sound of his movement on what he guessed was rocky, dusty ground. As far as he could tell, his wounds had closed. No new blood was flowing out of them, anyway, from what he could feel. He could still feel the sting of his wounds, though, and the dried blood still covered him. As vain as the attempt was, Norbert looked around. Then, he called into the darkness, "Rizen?"

Then, he waited for a stretch of time. He didn't even hear his voice echo, let alone any sign of a nearby pegasus...or any other living creature. "Amon? Shadrak? ...Nadya?"

After another long stretch of waiting, still no reply. Steadily, a twinge of fear began to creep into the pegasus rider's heart. Where is everyone...and everything? Even if I'm blind now, I should be able to hear more than this. I'm not deaf -- I can hear everything else fine. Then, with a sense of dread, he returned to his first question. Where...am I? Hastily, he got to his feet and again attempted to survey his surroundings and again, nothing came of it. More questions rushed through his mind as his fears began to grow. Did we lose the battle? How long as I out? What happened to everyone? Is this the work of the Fallen? Just how much did they destroy? Am I even still in the same place? Was I captured? Where's Rizen? Is she okay? How were we separated? Who healed me? ...Was I healed? Am I actually dead this time? Is...this what death's like? ...No, no that can't be it. I'm still breathing and I can still hear my heartbeat, but...where am I?

There was some relief for Norbert as he checked his sides. Splinter and Crunch were still with him and he became aware that he still had his armor on. Maybe the Fallen decimated the place and just didn't notice me or something... Maybe I fell off of Rizen and she was chased off... Is this what the Fallen do when they take over a place: cover it in darkness? No matter what, the situation certainly looked grim. For a moment, Bert wondered if it was safe to take a look around...as well as he could, anyway. Tentatively, he slid a foot forward. It didn't meet with anything other than the ground. Carefully, he put his weight onto it. The ground held. He repeated the process for a few steps before becoming more comfortable with just walking normally. He couldn't see anything, but from what he could feel, it was a vast expanse of flat, rocky ground. Though the lighting never changed and he never heard any sound from any direction. As he walked, all he could do was wonder. Wonder where he was, wonder what had transpired after he'd blacked out and wonder what happened to everyone and everything else.

Eventually, the darkness began to lift, but what was left in its wake was nothing to take comfort in. As the darkness folded away from an emerging horizon, Norbert was left standing in the middle of a dirt road between some buildings. The scene was completely wrong, though; there were no people, no color in the environment, and the sky was black, the light shining down having no discernible source. It was all just ... wrong.

There was one person, however. As the darkness was chased away in the opposite direction, Hypnos, with his hands in his pockets, strolled down the street toward Norbert. He lifted one of those hands to greet the pegasus rider with a friendly wave. "Hi there."

What...? Where am I? The question was revived as the darkness began to clear and his surroundings presented themselves. He didn't recognize this place at all, he was sure, even if there had been anything natural about it. There was still no one around, at least at first. He'd come to expect that. What he hadn't been expecting was to run into that spirit that came from Obelisk and lived in Raquel to casually be strolling towards him in the middle of all this.

There hadn't been much point in it up until now, so it was only just now that Norbert rubbed away the blood that had dried around his right eye. The endeavor was rushed, though, and it was more a precautionary action, so it wasn't a thorough job. Even so, the rider wasn't sure exactly how to address the one before him. He suspected that perhaps the spirit had survived due to an alliance with the Fallen, but then again, he was being confusingly light-hearted towards him and, quite frankly, Norbert was relieved that he wasn't the only one in the area. Still, he kept a cautious eye on Hypnos as he asked, "What happened?"

Hypnos kept walking but his pace slowed as soon as the question reached his ears. He ended up shrugging as part of his reply. "I can't be certain, after all, I didn't get here until it was already over." With so little context, the following, "That wasn't the ideal outcome, though ..." was likely among the least comforting allusions the phantom could have made.

"Arrive here?" The news was fairly disturbing, but that part seemed a bit odd. So, did the Fallen win? And where are we? As Hypnos passed him, Norbert turned around and asked, "Hey, wait -- were're you going?"

He had every intention of following at that point if Hypnos continued his stroll. Being left alone here was something of a troubling thought and his worry was actually quite plain for once. There was no point in saving face at the moment -- Norbert was far more concerned with trying to get answers and figuring out what to do next.

"For a walk," Hypnos answered plainly. He took note that Norbert seemed to want to tag along. "You should try to relax," he advised with a weak smile. "I doubt anything around here is going to harm you."

"How do you know that?" Norbert demanded, his suspicion spiking, "Are you with them: the Fallen? Did they do this?!" The force in his tone and the fire in his eyes weakened some as he asked "How many of us survived?"

"Well for one, I've never been attacked in this place ... eeexcept for that one time," Hypnos trailed off. "But hey," his tone quickly became disturbingly upbeat, "that was you people, and it was all for training if I recall correctly. So, yes, I think you'll be just fine." He avoided answering Norbert's latest questions for the moment, by simply spending extra time with the first.

"Huh?" that answer took him off-guard. Norbert then looked around more carefully. It certainly wasn't anywhere he'd been before, but the surroundings were vaguely familiar. Or at least, the way the light worked with that black sky. And...he's here, so... "Am I...unconscious?" Norbert grimaced at the thought. It was a strange thing to consciously wonder.

"Well your body certainly is," Hypnos answered, making a distinction between Norbert and whatever was left of his mortal shell. The darkness continued to clear away from Hypnos as he made his way forward and vast empty fields came into view off to his sides. The abandoned town they had been in earlier was behind them now, though still pretty close by. "I guess we could go and have a look since you seem so ... concerned about it," Hypnos offered with a shrug.

"Wait what?" What does he mean "have a look?" "Am I just unconscious or dead?" the rider asked, a little alarmed (though it sounded more demanding) as he followed along. He remembered hearing stories about how the spirits of the dead could watch the world of the living.

"If you were dead, I don't think we would be having this conversation right now, so you're probably just unconscious," Hypnos answered, somewhat straightforward for a change. "Let's see, I think it stops a little ways up ahead," Hypnos muttered to himself.

Well, I guess that means he can't talk to the dead... In hindsight, the thought seemed kind of silly, but Norbert really didn't know just what this spirit was capable of. He wondered what he meant, though, about something stopping ahead. Does he mean the edge of this world? Norbert was still trying to get a handle on his present situation.

"Hmm ... yep," Hypnos uttered, which was little more than a warning sign for Norbert. As Hypnos stopped, the darkness continued to recede, and soon revealed a cliff just a few feet in front of them. Its edge was so sharp, it was a wonder they could even stand where they were standing without causing the ground to give way. Hypnos held out an arm in front of Norbert just in case he didn't catch sight of the disastrous pitfall in time.

At first, in fact, Norbert didn't see it, but he'd stopped with some confusion when the spirit muttered something and stopped. It was then that he saw the cliff. Whoa. ... Why did he take me here? Or, I guess, why was he coming here in the first place? The fact that he'd tagged along of his own volition wasn't forgotten. He also noticed what seemed to be the spirit making an attempt to save him from a long fall.

"So...the edge of this world, huh?" That brought back some unpleasant memories. When the Colosseum fell out of the sky and Rizen was unable to fly -- she was so scared. He remembered being sure they were all going to die, having forgotten it was all just a dream. I hope that doesn't happen again...

"It's hard to build big areas on a whim, you know," Hypnos said with an apologetic smile. The darkness continued to pull back, eventually converging on one point on the horizon before disappearing entirely. What Norbert and Hypnos were standing in the middle of now was a split world; their half was the dull and colorless landscape they started off in, and the other was an incredibly enlarged view of the waking world. "Oh, there you are~" Hypnos said, taking a moment to literally point out the obvious.

He builds these worlds himself? Is that what was happening when the darkness was moving away from him? I thought he was just...glowing in some weird way or something...Those thoughts were cut short, though, as what was right in front of them took precedence. The cliff they were standing on was floating in what looked like one of the rooms in Weyland's estate, though it wasn't one he recognized. What was somewhat alarming and disturbing was what Hypnos pointed out, though: lying before them in a bed in the room, through the normal dark of nighttime indoors, Norbert saw himself.

He was asleep and he wasn't wearing his armor. He couldn't see very well in the dark, but he knew his own face and form well enough that he could tell there were some new scars from the previous battle, though they weren't that obvious. He was clean and his wounds were closed. Off to the side, on a dresser, he could see what he assumed were his clothes all folded up with Splinter and Crunch atop them, though they were still dirty (both the maces and the clothes, from what he could tell.) Needless to say, seeing all this perturbed Norbert a little and he was a little alarmed when he saw his sleeping self's mouth pull into a light frown and his eyebrows furrow in his sleep.

"O...kay..." Norbert said as he backed away from the edge of the cliff, "Uh... Yeah, alright. I believe you." He was glad, though, that it looked like they won. He doubted the Fallen would be this hospitable to a damaged human.

"That's good. Wouldn't want to spend too much time trying to convince you," Hypnos replied with a friendly retort. "You sure end up like this a lot," he noted, frowning slightly, his head still facing Norbert's unconscious form.

"Yeah, I know," Norbert replied in a sort of annoyed quickness as he crossed his arms, "It's a hobby. ..." The last statement was a sort of joke, but the pegasus rider didn't keep on that subject as there was something else bothering him. "Would you stop watching me sleep already? It's creepy."

With the initial fears resolved and dissolved, he was beginning to remember what he'd said to Raquel before he headed out to deposit his pay into a bank...and was subsequently stabbed, jailed and ultimately purchased by Weyland's cheeky Zero-One. Also, without realizing it, as he spoke, the dried blood and wardrobe damage began to disappear from his dream form. "Did you come here because of what I said to Raquel?" I told her I wanted to speak with this guy later sometime... Was he listening to that? And isn't she usually around, too?

"You're doing it, too," Hypnos feigned a defensive attitude as he leaned away from Norbert ever so slightly. Becoming more serious at the next thing Norbert eventually came out with, he said, "I suppose, though that was far back enough for me to just be plain curious at this point as well. Not many people say 'goodbye' to Discovery before actually leaving ..." That was one way of framing things.

I am not... he mentally grumbled with Hypnos' feigned defensiveness. With the rest of what the spirit said, though, he became confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"When's the last time you heard of one of Discovery's helpers coming up to her as you did, explaining the situation to her, and then parting ways? I suppose it isn't really important, but it does strike me as somewhat ... odd, that it happened in your case. Not only have you survived up til now, you've also attempted to sever ties without simply ... vanishing," Hypnos explained.

It was still a little confusing, but for entirely different reasons now. The spirit had something of a point, though Norbert himself wasn't really paying attention to who was formally cutting ties and who was just kind of leaving. The fact that the person who lived in her apparently thought it was odd enough to note made him feel a little self-conscious. "I...don't know. Just leaving without telling her why was never really an option. She was my boss and I figured she had a right to know. And you know how she is -- there was no just ending the contract and leaving. Not like there was any reason to hide why I was going..."

Partially due to how awkward he was now feeling and partially due to the goal he had in mind, he finished, "But I'm not talking about that. I told her that I wanted to speak with you at some point. And, well, I guess now's that point. Where is she, anyway?" Hastily, he added, "And I don't mean in the real world!" So don't even think about just going over to wherever it is she's sleeping and showing me that!

"She isn't dreaming at the moment, and that's probably for the best. As fun as it would be to simply pull her into this dream, it would consume even more energy. You can always have a word with her once she's awake."

That's not why I was asking. "Hm. Well, it doesn't matter. I guess I just got used to you always being around her; I didn't know you could separate from her like that," he replied. He'd settled down back to a sort of neutral calm, but became a little worried for a moment as he wondered if this meant that now he was stuck with the spirit. That quickly resolved its self, however, as he recalled that he didn't have an emblem piece and that was probably a prerequisite.

Guess I can go ahead and ask now, then. "Well, now that that's settled..." It was time for business. "Back before that dream fight, you mentioned training...or at least one of you did, if that dragon head is someone else." The laws of nature just don't hold up around Raquel... "I've been thinking about it and I wanted to ask you if there was any way you could help me train in my sleep. I already train during the day about as much as I can, but being able to train in my dreams? I'd get a lot stronger a lot faster, I bet, even though my body's not doing anything. That last dream fight was sure realistic, anyway. So, can you help me?"

"Anything for a price," Hypnos noted cryptically when Norbert expounded on his ability to be separate from Raquel. "As for helping you," he began, to make sure there was no confusing one answer for another, "I certainly could ... for a time ... either until the remaining energy within Discovery is all dispersed, or you move to a range I can't reach you from; whichever comes first."

"Hey, you and Raquel need that energy," Norbert answered with a serious frown. He wasn't too keen on the idea of this spirit using up all of his energy on him just for some training. "Don't spend it all on something like this. I'd appreciate the training, but don't go overboard just because of that. At most I was expecting only one training session, to be honest, and more than one would be appreciated, but don't use up too much on me. I'd never ask for someone to spend all they had of anything for my sake." To be entirely accurate, it was exceedingly rare for Norbert to ask for anything, but that seemed like an unnecessary detail so he didn't bother saying it.

"Well, Discovery is hoping to find a new emblem piece at some point ... if she does, the amount of energy at her disposal will be unlimited, as will mine," Hypnos noted, punctuating the plan with a smile. "If that happens, you wouldn't be able to use 'too much'."

"That's assuming she gets one," Norbert noted, though he honestly hoped she would. "And how about if she does, then you keep training me? Be conservative while you don't have an emblem piece around, though; there are a lot more important things that energy does than helping just me out."

"That sounds like a fine arrangement," Hypnos agreed, putting his arms behind his back and standing like an officer at the edge of the cliff. "So," he glanced (with closed eyes) at Bert, "did you want to make an appointment?"

A grin began to spread on Norbert's face. "I'll leave that up to you, I think. I'm available any time I'm sleeping. Don't know what your schedule's like. You also have a better idea of how much energy you should and shouldn't be using, I assume. I'm not sure how much of the night's already gone, so I don't know if we have any time for training this time, but I'm looking forward to trying this new training out."

It was only then that Norbert remembered that he didn't actually know this spirit's name. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Hypnos," the phantom nodded. "Aaand ..." he paused for no apparent reason, "I suppose now would be a good time, if this setting works for you."

Norbert's grin widened as a competitive gleam came into his eyes and he unbelted Splinter and Crunch. "Even though I won't be following Raquel around anymore, I never know where, when or whom I'll have to fight," he explained before dropping into a ready stance. The gleam turned nearly wild as he finished, excited for the upcoming training, "Any setting works for me."

"Excellent," Hypnos calmly said, though the enthusiasm in his voice was unmistakable. In an instant, the split world became whole, and the view of Norbert's room faded into nothing. Finally, there was something other than an abyss beyond the cliff's edge. Below them was a city, Europa by the looks of it, though clearly in a different location if the cliff overlooking it was any indication.

Hypnos turned to face Norbert, and as he let his arms loose to fall to his sides, a pair of ebon wings followed, appearing on his back. At the same time, a pegasus appeared, flying straight toward them from the city below as fast as she could. "Prepare yourself for a great deal of hardship," Hypnos warned before beating down his wings and launching himself into the sky.

When Norbert woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was lying somewhere warm and comfortable. The environment certainly had changed from where he last remembered being. Last he recalled, he was surrounded by enemies, exhausted, hardly able to even twitch as his head spun. He'd been falling to the ground, collapsing as his vision fogged and faded... He couldn't help but find that ironic as he opened his eyes -- passing out in the dream world and waking up in the real world. Indeed, he was in the very room he saw himself in while he was asleep. Beyond that, he was more or less in the same position on his back. The room was now filled with morning light, though. Whew... That was hard. I guess it really happened, though.

The pegasus rider sat up and gave himself a long stretch. He was pretty stiff and still felt kind of tired, but he attributed that to bloodloss and his body's lack of recent activity. He also discovered that he was wearing borrowed pants. Only borrowed pants. At first, he was a little surprised, but thinking about it, it was probably easier for the healers that way so he wasn't about to complain. It also gave him the opportunity to look at the overlapping, light lines striping his upper arms: some of the scars from the previous night's battle. Swinging his legs out from under the covers and rolling up one of the pantlegs to check his thigh, he found more of them, though less than on his arms. Letting that drop back to its length, the rider sighed and stood up, walking over to the dresser that had his own clothes and maces on it. His armor was there, too, but the first thing he checked was the mirror attached to the dresser. Indeed, he had a scar running from his left cheek up and through his right eyebrow, over the bridge of his nose. It was, like the ones on his arms, thin and pale, but it'd cut a bare patch into said eyebrow. One like it was also evident running diagonal through where his neck joined with his right shoulder and the edge of his upper left ear now had a tiny triangle of empty space where it'd been nicked.

So...that's what I look like now. Huh. Wonder if these scars will stay or fade. With those thoughts, he moved on to looking over his armor. It was still dirty and scratched, but he found himself feeling glad for it in the form of relief. If I hadn't been wearing this, I would've really been torn up... Glad I invested in it. It still needs some repairs, though...I think... Most of the damage was superficial, but he still made a mental note to get those scratches taken care of at some point, especially the leather bits. He didn't want to have to deal with someone cutting into where the leather had already been damaged and managing to get it off of him. Not only would that be dangerous, but it'd be embarrassing. For the time being, though, he only planned on cleaning it. His clothes, however, were in far worse shape. The upper sleeves of his tunic were more or less shredded, as were the upper legs of his pants. He decided not to ask Raquel about that since he wasn't working for her anymore; there was probably someone at Weyland's who could handle that after he washed them. His maces had, of course, held up the best. They just needed to be cleaned.

All that handled and his schedule already forming in his mind, Norbert walked over to the closet. "Let's see what we have in here..." It was mostly loose-fitting, cotton clothing in white and gray with men's attire on one side of the closet and women's on the other. This caused an odd, mixed reaction for Norbert. For one, it brought him back to his childhood at the orphanage. They had more or less uniform, white tunics and pants they'd wear since those were ordered in bulk and were easy to replace. This feeling was strange enough, but on top of that, he wondered why there was women's clothes there in the first place and that got him wondering just whose room he was in. Is it even okay for me to take anything from in here? Well, he certainly didn't want to be wandering around the estate in nothing but some loose-fitting trousers, especially since he planned on heading to the stables to check up on and tend to Rizen. And besides that, he still had to get that certification for pegasus combat as soon as possible and he wanted to wear a bit more if he was going to go into Europa's cathedral -- a shirt at the very least.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gytha had spent much of her night after helping with the recovery sleeping. Still, she woke up to Maw looking down at her with her one, blue eye. "Ah, ahoy, Maw," Gytha greeted the feline. After being taken care of, the cat trotted off to wander the manse and Gytha headed over to get some breakfast. Beyond that, she was still determined to share her experience at the ball with her friends. For one, she'd promised to do so, and for two, she preferred to think on the positive events of the previous night. Sure, she felt sorry for the deaths and those who were injured, but there was nothing one could do about the dead and those who were injured were already being taken care of. Perhaps it was just that she was more used to death and perhaps it was that she didn't know any of those who died personally, but she still tried to be sensitive to those who were mourning.

That said, when she saw the Rexians sitting together, she naturally decided to sit with them and greeted them with a gentle cheeriness. "Ahoy, there," she greeted as she sat down with her breakfast, "How're ye all doin'?"

Edited January 23, 2014 by Mercakete

[ReformBlade]

Left hand in use, she tried to wipe her face in frustration with her nonexistent right hand out of habit which lead to a somewhat pathetic display of her arm wiggling and her getting more frustrated. "Shadrak, stop that..." She was getting so irritated and it was easily noted in her voice. "You are not the reason that I got hurt, ok? Please... stop acting like you're the driving force in this. I'm feeling... i'm feeling belittled by it, like you're the one who was controlling me, like I had no say in it. Well, I did, so please just stop!" Why can't this just be clear cut?! That unfortunate word choice got her thinking to her arm again, and the feelings that come with it. Mushirah fell flat on her back on the bed again, a mental exhaustion setting in. "Look, I'm tired and still in pain, just give me some time... actually, can you uh... can you go get me some food?" Again with the subject change, hoping it'd stay changed from then on. "And um... maybe you can find me some clothes? If they have any to spare? Please...?" She added shyly, a smile to go with it.

No amount of mental prep talk would do anything for Jericho, instead all he could think of was <Oh fuck she's jumping at me.> Funnily enough, he almost decided to try and launch some fire at her in a gut response to a sudden charge. To his credit, he actually did catch her by some definition of the word, and by some miracle above, but that didn't last long as he still ended up falling over from the weight and the momentum, getting more or less crushed in the process, a really pained "Ooof!" sounding out, followed by more expletives for exaggerations sake. Paaaaaaaain... "Same... feeling, eh?" Sharp intakes of breath unfortunately kept him from his silly banter from progressing.

Edited January 23, 2014 by ReformBlade

[scorri]

Erion

Watching Jericho fall under the sudden weight increase, Erion couldn't help chuckling slightly. "Heh, can't say that wasn't unexpected. My recommendation, Eva, would be to find someone who's a tad sturdier than you next time you want to jump on them. Though I suppose he probably made a decent pillow." Winking at her, he leaned back against the trunk of the tree. <If I don't see you later, I will be disappointed. Good luck.>

Lumi

"Hey now, no call to go hurting yourself. Getting some food is a good idea though. Any clue how to go about that?" Lumi glanced around, trying to figure out who to ask about food, having realized that she was hungry too.

[Oersted]

"Oh so you know how to hunt," Orville said, clearly impressed. "With those skills you could live entirely self-sufficient if you wanted to. I've always thought it'd be interesting to to that even if it wouldn't be all that pleasent." Orville frowned when, in his opinion at least, Robin started being to hard on herself. "Well, if you want to think like that I won't stop you but I think a lot of people go through a faze where they want to see the world or do something important. Those that actually try are pretty brave in my book. Shame about your friend, though there isn't much I can say about it, I've always prefered companions."

[Phoenix]

Information

"The fallen and the fire emblem? Hmm." Well ... actually, no. Desmond probably already knows about that, Athrun told himself.

"There is no such thing as 'cheating' in a war," said the guard who'd taken the tome as he thumbed through it.

"Do you really think the fallen have declared war on us? They can't seem to overcome the kigenese ... why would they bother with us? A long term pincer maneuver couldn't possibly work with all the other countries considered," Athrun noted. While he had to admit, the empire might be of a mind to at least wait until Ursium was too weak to defend itself to step in and help against the fallen, there was no way they would let them entrench themselves afterward since that would ultimately lead to the defeat of the Kigenese. With no strong allies, they would surely be next. It might take a generation or longer, but that was beside the point.

Glancing off to his side, Eugene scowled. "That's what has me worried, but it will be up to the king how we proceed." Coming over to the prince and Angelica, he looked the latter in the eye and asked, "What more can you tell us? Information is extremely scarce and you seem to have far more than most people."

Out On Errands

"... yeah ... sure," Shadrak replied with his head down for a moment. You may have had a say, but I knew better than to attack without thinking like that. Either way, I won't ever let anything like this happen again. "I'll be back as soon as I can," he said before leaving the room. The timing certainly seemed appropriate, as one of the maids approached as soon as he came outside. She advised him to have someone help him get cleaned up before going inside to check on Mushirah.

Shadrak didn't really care at the moment, but he supposed he should at least wash his face and hands, and change into something else. His clothes were even more spotted in blood than his hands and collar. He made his way back to his own room first to find his normal pants, shirt, and cloak. Once he found them, he set them aside and washed everything he felt he had time to before changing. He just left his hair damp after sweeping it back and left for the dining hall.

On the way to the staircase, he came across Raquel and Chip. He wouldn't have said a word to them, but the former noticed him just as she was about to take her first step down. "Morning, Shadrak," she carefully greeted. Only receiving some acknowledgement in the form of a nod was a telltale sign that he wasn't in the best mood at the moment. Considering all that happened she wasn't surprised. "How is she doing? M-mentally, I mean ...?"

"She's ... going to be alright. She's not giving up," Shadrak nodded a few times.

"Okay," Raquel nodded back slightly. She meant to say 'that's good' or 'glad to hear it', but somewhere in there, the words were lost.

"I need to get Mushirah something to eat, so I'm going to go take care of that now," Shadrak quickly said before trying to speed walk past Raquel down the steps.

"... we're going to the same place," she mused aloud, though it was so quiet, Shadrak didn't catch it. She was beginning to think he just didn't want to talk to anyone, at least not for the whole walk to the dining area and waited a full ten seconds before starting on her way again.

Status Report

"Amon's depressed again, Haythem's worried about Nadya, Malik's being mean but oddly rational, and I'm still hungry," Fizza greeted Gytha before taking another bite of Amon's breakfast.

"I would go check on her but ... what if she just wants to be alone right now? I wouldn't want to be a bother ...."

"Just go; having a door slammed in your face won't kill your chances. It's actually kind of novel. She'll probably even apologize to you later if she does overreact like that. If you say something thoughtless, though ... that's all on you," Fizza explained, wagging a spoon at Haythem.

[-Cynthia-]

"Morning Shadrak," Veronika said cordially as he walked into the dining hall like a man on a mission. Veronika figured he wanted to get moving so that they could visit the church again to learn more about the emblem- but she was definitely going to bring more people if the knights were going to nearly decapitate them again. Of course, there was still the matter of Reign missing and whatever Weyland was planning after what happened the previous night...she began to eat her porridge with more urgency as there was much to do today.

[Ether]

"That might be true, but it's still a pain... if my info is right Valdimarr was killed twice last night... shame about that not being considered cheating, huh?" Angelica retorted with a sigh... atleast some clouds had gone past, blocking the sun from her eyes.

"The Fallen won't declare war on Ursium... not yet There's only one thing in Ursium they care about more than getting the Kigenese off their back, and they just learned that it won't be a cakewalk to get it.. Now, this is speculation on my part, but... well they failed their primary objective. They'll be less focused on the city next time they attack... they'll devote more manpower to actually getting what they need to get done, and less on ravaging the city folk." Angelica replied, now Eugene being her makeshift sunblocker as he stood over her, oddly determined to look the adept in the eyes despite her position.

"And next time, you'll be ready... atleast moreso than you were now. What about that fancy pegasus knight squad you guys sicced on those dragons? Surely they could take out the architects... if last night says anything, they need them here to upkeep all those demon troops... take them out and they need to start sending actual Fallen... the bastards are hard to kill but so are dragons, and you roughed them up pretty good... the only reason Kigen has so much trouble with them is those dispendable hordes of troops." Angelica continued, lazily meeting Eugene's gaze as she shifted her legs, uncrossing them and then crossing the opposite leg over instead.

[Nanami Touko]

That was slightly disappointing, but she couldn't have expected much more, collapsing the man and falling on top of him. Yeah, ow is right. That did kinda hurt. But it was fun! Her words didn't mirror her thoughts. "Sorry Jericho. That was stupid, wasn't it? Promise I won't do something like that again... But you sure are a brave guy for trying that!" Whilst still on top of him, she leaned in quick and kissed his cheek. "I know it won't make you feel better, but it's something, right?" She got herself up off of him, and quickly addressed Erion with, "<you definitely will,>" before turning back to Jericho and offering him a hand up. "You want me to help you find a healer? Nothing's probably broken but that'll probably bruise. Again, sorry."

[roymbrog]

Kat

Upon their arrival the previous night, Katrina had wanted nothing more but to curl up on a bed and sleep. Unfortunately that had been delayed by briefing of the situation, and her inability to navigate through the large building. She had ended up following Zach and one of their tagalongs, since she remembered her room being nearby on the hall, and after the bare minimum of cleaning herself up, fell fast asleep.

The morning came, and soon after waking up it dawned on Kat what she was too tired to comprehend last night. Just how many civilians had died last night because of the attacks? They had been told the number of Weyland’s employees, but casualties must have been much higher in the city. She was sickened by the thought.

Whether or not the previous night’s events were distasteful to her, there was still today to deal with. After hopping out of bed, Katrina got cleaned up and headed out the door. Walking down the hall, though, she had a thought. Because of last night, she knew where Zach’s room was, and they hadn’t talked in a while. Maybe if he were still there he’d want to come have breakfast? The wyvern rider decided her idea couldn’t hurt to try, and stopped to knock at his door.

---

Synthia

After a pretty shitty night, Synthia woke up to a slightly less shitty morning. She had been made aware of the two dining room situation when she accidentally stumbled upon the celebration in one of them, and, not seeing much to celebrate about herself, had soon left to find someplace quieter to eat. Though the somber atmosphere in the other dining hall wasn’t something she wanted to be around either, it was much easier to tolerate. A few others she recognized were here too, and she sat down by Gytha after retrieving a plate of food. “Good morning,” was all she said to those at the table, though she didn’t sound terribly cheerful about it.

[Balcerzak]

When the tiny alchemist had completed her work, and began to sip on a mug of tea, Theodore lightly clapped, announcing his presence, before stepping into the room to take a closer look at the final product.

"I have to admit I'm a little surprised," he began. "I'd been under the impression alchemy had been developed so that those without talent could attempt to mimick what those with power could do, substituting rote and formula for skill. But from your aura that seems to be anything but the case. I'm starting to wonder if maybe I've missed out by never trying my hand at it. Do you mind if I take a look," the adept finished by gesturing to the completed weapon.

It probably wasn't the best way to get on someone's good side, to be perfectly honest, but then again, you never know.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Balcerzak

[Eail]

After the wagon got back to the estate the previous night, Zach piled out and pretty much walked like a zombie towards the beds along with Kat. Washing off the blood that was left on him, he immediately climbed into bed and went back to sleep once he was somewhat clean.

When he heard the knock at the door, a groan was the response. Getting out of bed wearing just a pair of pants he was rubbing at his eyes as he opened the door. "Oh... hey Kaaaaa *yawn* Kat. What's up?" He groggily asked the shorter green haired girl.

______

Alphonse awoke the next morning with a dull throb in his head, most of the pain seemed to have gone away, but it'd probably be another day before he was fully ready. Getting out of bed, and finding that his coat had yet another tear in it, he decided to work on that during breakfast. Grabbing his weapon and normal attire, minus coat, he went downstairs to join Amon's bunch at the dining hall. He'd let Jam sleep in for now, she deserved it.

Grabbing a thread and needle out of his handy dandy bag of holding, Al started the process of repairing the cut from the demon claw.

[scorri]

Startled, Hoshi started, almost spilling some of her tea before turning around. "I... uhm, sorry. I did not realize that anyone was around. Uhm... while it's true that alchemy does not require the developed skill in dark magic that some spells do, it still requires a lot of control as well as a lot of alchemic knowledge. If you don't know what you're doing, or don't have a solid grasp of tendril magic, or even just lose concentration for a second, all you'll end up with is a useless heap of material and a massive headache. Even the best alchemists can have that happen. Skill in dark magic can help, but it can't replace years of study of alchemy." She paused, realizing she had started to give a mini lecture. Blushing slightly, she picked up the sword after stowing a few notebooks and drawings from her table into a drawer and walked it over to him. "Sorry, sometimes I get a bit... defensive about alchemy. Uhm, but here. I was working on it for one of the members of the group that's staying here. I'm guessing you're part of that group? Anyways, she wanted something that was a bit more defensive. So I made the blade a bit sturdier and added the wide hilt, as opposed to the normal style one it had before. This way, if she holds it like a normal sword, it will still work as a hilt, but if she holds it like a tonfa, it will wrap around her wrist and lower arm to provide almost a shield and allow for better defense."

[Snowy_One]

"My best friend is here actually. In this group. You might know him by the name of Zach. However, he has been... distant of late. I worry that he is no longer the person I once knew. He has had it rough these past few years. Wait, brave?" Robin suddenly stopped entirely, as if mulling the word over. "You think what I did was... brave?"

---

With a soft moan, Tia finally awoke and, before the morning sun could reach her eyes, discovered that, in her sleep, she had managed to preform alchemy! Not just any alchemy though, but had managed to transmute paper into pillow! Clearly someone had put it there after she had fallen asleep, but who? She didn't know. Either way, it didn't matter. It was a nice thought, but until someone came forwards to claim it, it could be little more. Sides, for all she knew, it was just a maid following orders.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Snowy_One

[ReformBlade]

With Shadrak gone and the room to herself, Mushirah sighed in relief. She didn't know how much longer she could go without crying in front of him, or anyone really. Right now, curling up into a ball and disappearing sounded like a fun time, a thing she was certainly trying to do by the looks of it on the bed. Covering herself very lazily under the sheets, she began to cry letting out an uncontrolled sob every so often. For Mushirah, it was easy to put on a confident face when there was someone else there to show it to, but when she was alone, there was only an unfortunate reality for her.

Jericho took Eva's hand, a bit shaken but he still gave as firm a grip as he could, hoisting himself up with some effort. "I would say you owe me but god damn, woman, I ain't gonna cash in on this one. Why? Fuck, I don't know." Why did I do that again? Whatever, i'm not doing that again unless my life depends on it. Hmm... what if there was an actual danger here? Would I have done better? hahaha...

"I don't knoooow." Aneda sounded out, whining to Lumi in general. She flat out didn't know. Was food the right choice? Was seeing Hannah and Star Hunter right? Was sitting here right? Was going out and getting rip roaring drunk the right choice? She was so plagued with wondering what would be the right choice, she couldn't make any decisions.

[Phoenix]

[spoiler=OoC]I saw two 'zombie's earlier but now I only see one. This is ... better ... still tempted to use plot rune knights to kick the offending asses, but for now this is better lol. Stop using that term, please >_>

Streets of Intel

"Clearly whoever 'killed him' needs to try a lot harder next time," the guard retorted.

Angelica's explanation was far more than anything Athrun or Eugene expected, so much so that Eugene asked, "You said you didn't learn this directly from Weyland, but where--rather 'how' did you learn of all this?"

"The riders from Ursentius? Perhaps they could deal with them, but they're hard to find and there aren't many of them to begin with." Sighing, and thinking about the information as a whole, Athrun rested his head on his fist and said, "Weyland's been keeping this to himself and what probably amounts to a small circle. I don't think he trusts us to put enough effort into the situation while still at war with the empire, or authorize him to do anything about it himself. It's difficult to know if he was right in hindsight, but I doubt my father's going to let this go, easily."

"True ... so it's these 'architects' we need to watch out for and prioritize, is that right?" Eugene checked just to be sure he had that right. "Descriptions, of any you saw would be helpful," he added, figuring they might not have the term 'architect' written anywhere in plain view when they saw them.

Mushirah's Room

"May I come in?" came a woman's voice at the door. Normally she would have been stealthier about it, but with Shadrak having left but a moment ago, chances were the patient was either awake, or something close, and it was after eight, anyway.

Dining Hall

"... morning," Shadrak kept control of his eyes, making sure they didn't meet with anyone else's or drift too closely to the rexians. "I take it there's nothing but porridge this morning ..."

"Don't gripe about this porridge; these folks know what they're doin'," Greta defended the choice.

"Good to know. It's not for me, anyway. I'm just here to bring Mushirah her breakfast," the shaman explained in a neutral tone as he made for the kitchen.

Amon only glanced at Shadrak to try and see if the incidents from last night were on his mind. It was quite obvious that at least what happened to Mushirah was on his mind, but he also took his evasive eyes as a sign that he didn't want to talk about the other thing either. That was just fine by Amon, really. It wasn't water under the bridge, but maybe with a little more time, it would be.

Raquel arrived shortly after, with Chip still on her shoulder, looking clean and ... normal. "Morning," she greeted everyone in sight. She could smell the food and knew what they were having for breakfast. She liked porridge but Chip wasn't going to enjoy the 'slop' so she decided to see if she could get him some fruit or something.

[Nanami Touko]

Eva giggled. "You're so weird, Jericho. At least in the two conversations we've had you've been. But it's a good weird. Keep it." Seeing as Erion didn't seem to be following them out of the tree, Eva decided this was as good a time as any to search out Weyland and speak to him about employment. "First task is finding him though. Hey, Jericho, you wouldn't know where Weyland is, would you? I need to talk to him, but he might be busy after the whole demon nonsense. If I can at least find his office I can speak to him later. Wanna help me search?"

[Ether]

"Well, the second time he died a good chunk of people saw it happen... they had cleared out the attackers outside by that point so a decent amount of people went in to try and lock Valdimarr down... I pieced what I've got together from some of the guards... as for trying harder, seems he got melted from the inside out with dark magic... and the outside in... they were already trying pretty hard." Angelica replied, clicking her tongue lightly as she finished, trying to recall Fury's appearance when asked.

"Well, looked like he was getting up in years... he had a jet black cloak on in the dead of night so I didn't see much more than that... had a real piercing gaze though... but most of them do when they glare at you. The demons seemed more clustered around him then they did elsewhere, though... you'd probably be able to work out who they are by watching their formations... and looking for strong magic users. It takes a lot of power to summon things like that." The adept added, deciding to sit back up.

"It's just like any other fight, really... you'll do more good taking out an officer than you would a grunt... so if you see one of the fallen amongst the demons, aim for it first, if it's not an architect atleast you killed something with actual value to their army... even moreso when the foot soldiers just keep appearing out of nowhere as long as the officer is alive." Angelica concluded with a sigh.

[ReformBlade]

Mushirah was caught off guard with the maid's voice, figuring it would have taken longer than that. She had no real basis for comparison for this event but she still felt it was earlier than expected and with her current emotional state that made for a mixed reaction. "Y-Yes...?" She said, quickly and sloppily squirming out from under the sheets, wiping her face of the newly made tears. Mushirah might have been a bit less frustrated with this task but she kept defaulting to her right arm which was really getting old for her but that thought simply made her more and more dismal as time went on. "Come in..." she decided to add, the agitation leaking into her tone. "Please!" she added one more thing in an attempt to sound inviting but she wasn't sure that was doing it for anyone.

"Oh, well I don't know where he'd be, but I should probably go find Raquel and talk to her while I've got a chance. I don't think she'd be this busy in the morning but... I've been destructively wrong in the past." Jericho made note with a grin, actually feeling alright for himself despite the potential bruises he just acquired. "Yeah I can help out." He assured, dusting himself off.